This invention relates to a method of protecting painted and other surfaces from being permanently marked by flexible tip permanent marking pens and other permanent marking implements. More particularly this invention relates to an improved method using a superior coating composition which prevents the elements in permanent marking pens and other marking implements from penetrating through the protective coating to the surface of the underlying substrate.
The vandalism of buildings, public transportation systems and substantially any vertical surface in the past decade has increased tremendously. The bulk of this vandalism is in the form commonly known as graffiti which is usually applied to the surfaces by spray paint or felt tip permanent marking pens. Graffiti commonly includes names, designs, verbal expressions and the like and must be removed to maintain the appearance of the property. Graffiti is a problem both for interior and exterior surfaces. Interior graffiti, i.e., that applied to the interior walls of schools, buses, public buildings, restrooms, and the like, is primarily applied using flexible tip permanent marking pens. These pens are generally solvent or water based. The solvent based marking pens present the most difficult removal problems. The oil-soluble inks, pigments and dyes used in these marking implements penetrate most barrier materials. Generally, the solvent used in these marking implements creates little problems as the solvent flashes off almost immediately.
One way to counteract the graffiti problem is by developing strong cleaners or combinations of cleaners which can remove substantially any type of marking from almost any surface. While it is possible to clean almost anything from any surface by the right use of materials, permanent marking inks penetrate into painted surfaces. To completely remove the pen marks, all or part of the paint coating must also be removed.
A second approach has been to apply a protective coating onto a surface to protect the same and either prevent the adherence of the graffiti to the surface or act as a sacrificial coating which both prevents the transmission of the graffiti through the coating and is easily removed with the coating by common cleaning methods. Until the development of the composition used in the method of the present invention there has been no successful sacrificial protective coating composition which is capable of prerenting substantially all the markings of various forms of graffiti from penetrating through the sacrificial film to the underlying substrate. While there have been commercial anti-graffiti coatings on the market, each of these coatings is deficient in some way and particularly these coatings are deficient in their resistance to the substances found in permanent flexible tip marking pens.